{"id":1034,"date":"2026-07-09T15:58:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/taylor-swift-joins-celebrities-using-the-law-to-fight-back-against-ai-deepfakes\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:58:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:58:41","slug":"taylor-swift-joins-celebrities-using-the-law-to-fight-back-against-ai-deepfakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/taylor-swift-joins-celebrities-using-the-law-to-fight-back-against-ai-deepfakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift joins celebrities using the law to fight back against AI deepfakes"},"content":{"rendered":"
A waxwork of Taylor Swift in Madame Tussauds in London. Now the star is trying to trademark her voice and image to protect against AI deepfakes. <\/span> Sergii Figurnyi\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Taylor Swift launched her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, in October 2025, she recorded two short clips to promote it. One for Amazon Music began with \u201cHey, it\u2019s Taylor Swift\u201d. Another, for Spotify with \u201cHey, it\u2019s Taylor\u201d. <\/p>\n

These two phrases may sound a little mundane, but they\u2019re now at the frontline of a legal fightback by celebrities like Swift against AI deepfakes<\/a>. In April, Swift\u2019s intellectual property company, TAS Right Management, applied to the US Patent and Trademark office<\/a> to trademark them as registered sound marks, along with a photo of her, from her recent Eras tour. <\/p>\n

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly<\/a> podcast, we speak to an expert in intellectual property law, Graeme Austin, to understand why Swift took this route, and the different ways celebrities are trying to protect themselves against AI deepfakes. And if you\u2019re not a celebrity with a large legal team, what can you do? <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Taylor Swift\u2019s army of intellectual property lawyers are \u201creally trying to create a wall around her image,\u201d says Austin. He says it\u2019s unclear how the trademarks, if awarded, will protect her, but suggests that they \u201ccould serve a deterrent effect\u201d and provide her with specific protections against fake product endorsements. <\/p>\n

While many countries now have criminal laws to protect against the dissemination fo sexual deepfake material, Austin says \u201cthere isn\u2019t the same kind of consensus around non-sexual deepfakes\u201d. As a result, he says those targeted are turning to civil suits. For example, in India, Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan<\/a> and Anil Kapoor<\/a> have successfully sued using civil law to protect themselves against deepfakes. <\/p>\n

Listen to Austin talk about the legal routes to fightback against deepfakes on The Conversation Weekly<\/a> podcast.<\/em> <\/p>\n

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl.<\/em><\/p>\n

Newsclips in this episode from US Patent<\/a> and Trademark Office<\/a>, NBC News<\/a>, NBC Montana<\/a>, WhiteHatWes<\/a> and NDTV<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed<\/a> or find out how else to listen here<\/a>. A transcript of this episode is available via the Apple Podcasts or Spotify apps.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Graeme Austin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A waxwork of Taylor Swift in Madame Tussauds in London. Now the star is trying to trademark her voice and image to protect against AI deepfakes. Sergii Figurnyi\/Shutterstock When Taylor Swift launched her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, in October 2025, she recorded two short clips to promote it. One for Amazon Music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}